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Jillian York

Jillian C. York is EFF's Director for International Freedom of Expression and is based in Berlin, Germany. Her work encompasses a broad range of topics, from digital security to the privatization of censorship. At EFF, she works on a number of projects, including Surveillance Self-Defense, Digital Citizen, and OnlineCensorship.org. Jillian's writing has been featured in Al Jazeera, the Guardian, Foreign Policy, the Atlantic, and the New York Times, among others. She is also a regular speaker at global events.

Prior to joining EFF, Jillian worked at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, where she worked on several projects including the OpenNet Initiative and Herdict. She is the co-founder of the award-winning multilingual blog Talk Morocco, and has volunteered with Global Voices for many years.

In addition to her work at EFF, Jillian is a fellow at the Centre for Internet & Human Rights in Berlin and a founding member of the Deep Lab collective. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Global Voices, and on the advisory boards of SMEX and R-Shief.

Jillian holds a BA in Sociology from Binghamton University, where—like a surprisingly large number of individuals in her field—she also studied theatre. She alternately resides in the Internet or on an airplane and can often be found blogging or tweeting, as @jilliancyork.

EFF is thrilled by the news that Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil (Sanad), detained since March 2011, was released today, just one day prior to the anniversary of Egypt's January 25 uprising. Though earlier reports suggested Nabil would not be released until the 26th, Al Masry Al Youm reported his release late Tuesday evening.

Slowed Connections in Iran Spark Fears of Intranet Implementation
Late last week, the Iranian government descended deeper into authoritarianism, ordering the takedown of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's website. Rafsanjani, who heads an advisory body to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had previously refused to remove content critical of the government.

As the year draws to a close, EFF is looking back at the major trends influencing digital rights in 2011 and discussing where we are in the fight for a free expression, innovation, fair use, and privacy.

"Israeli spy gear sent to Iran via Denmark," reads the headline from Israeli paper YNet News. Today, yet another breaking story of a high-tech company selling spyware to an authoritarian regime emerged.

In 2011, we have witnessed the incredible power of bloggers and social media users capturing the world’s attention through their activism. At the same time, regimes appear to be quickening the pace of their cat-and-mouse game with netizens, cracking down on speech through the use of surveillance, censorship, and the persecution and detention of bloggers.